DPA Webinars, Lighting Against a White Background, How to clean it up with NIK
Photo by John Bentham, DPA instructor, New York
Top Image – Original
Bottom Image – NIK Processed
Looking for a quick, painless and fast way to add some punch to your portraits? Who isn’t? The samples on this page started out as portraits shot against a white background. Shot with relatively simple lighting, one or two flash heads off camera to produce directional light. The trouble with shooting against white is there is often a bit of background flare to contend with. Flare is light that bounces back off the background to come back into the lens. The result can be washed out and muted colors in your subject. To avoid this photographers often struggle with the lighting to achieve just the right balance between light on the subject, not too much to produce flare, and yet still maintain a clean white background. Easier said than done. Sometimes there isn’t enough time on a shoot, depending on the subject and situation to tweak it just right. This is where NIK Viveza 2 Software comes in.
Photo by John Digilio, DPA student, New YorkLeft Image – Original
Right Image – NIK Processed
In a simple fix you simply open the image in Photoshop (or Lightroom) and click Viveza 2 Plug-In. Once the program opens you adjust a few sliders to make a Global adjustment, adding some Structure, Contrast, Saturation. Boom … You’re done, what could be easier and the results look great.
Photo by John Bentham, DPA instructor, New YorkLeft Image – Original
Right Image – NIK Processed